Fascinated by the unlikely merging of the holy and the horrifying is Irish-Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, whose series of hyperrealist paintings Epiphany I (Adoration of the Magi), Epiphany II (Adoration of the Shepherds), Epiphany III ( Presentation at the Temple), undertaken between 1996 and 1998, collapsed conventional choreography associated with the Christian narratives in traditional old master paintings with the historical set design of German Nazism. Epiphany I uncomfortably restaging unmistakable postures of Medieval and Renaissance depictions of the Madonna and Child in the anachronistic context of lateof late 1930s or serly 1940s Germany.

The years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November
1989 have seen the rise of a new freedom to define art—Who makes it?
Where can it be found? What is its commercial value?—and, consequently,
the reevaluation of art’s place in society.

Kelly Grovier surveys the dynamic developments in art practice
worldwide since 1989, focusing on artists whose fresh visual vocabulary
and innovation reflect these past turbulent decades. The book’s ten
chapters examine the key themes in contemporary art—portraiture in the
age of face transplants and facial recognition software, political
activism, science, and religion, to name a few—by artists including Jeff
Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, George Condo, Marlene Dumas,
Gottfried Helnwein, Sean Scully, Cindy Sherman, Banksy, Ai Weiwei, Antony Gormley, Christo
and Jean-Claude, Jenny Holzer, Chuck Close, and Cornelia Parker. A
chapter-length timeline at the end of the book traces the evolution of
art from 1989 to today by closely examining one key artwork from each
year.

Illustrated with the work of over 200 key artists, Art Since 1989
is a lucid and engaging look at what may prove to be one of the more
tempestuous eras in human history, if not the history of art.

Contributors

Kelly Grovier

Author

Kelly Grovier is a poet, historian, and cultural critic. He
contributes regularly on art to the Times Literary Supplement, and his
writing has appeared in the Observer, the Sunday Times, and Wired. He is
the cofounder of the international scholarly journal European Romantic
Review and the author of 100 Works of Art that Will Define Our Age.

Fascinated by the unlikely merging of the holy and the horrifying is Irish-Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, whose series of hyperrealist paintings Epiphany I (Adoration of the Magi), Epiphany II (Adoration of the Shepherds), Epiphany III ( Presentation at the Temple) (60, 61, 62), undertaken between 1996 and 1998, collapsed conventional choreography associated with the Christian narratives in traditional old master paintings with the historical set design of German Nazism. Epiphany I uncomfortably restaging unmistakable postures of Medieval and Renaissance depictions of the Madonna and Child in the anachronistic context of lateof late 1930s or serly 1940s Germany.

In the role of the three attendant Magi, a clutch of SS officers, gazing adoringly at the Aryan miracle of mother and messiah, have been cast by Helnwein, whose monochrom palate swaddles the scene in the chilling light of a holocaust documentary.

Most disturbingly of all, the countenance of the venerated child bears an unnerving resemblance to Adolf Hitler, a sinister sleight of brush that upends the viewer's sense of historical balance.